Certificate of Transfer
When a real estate owner dies without a will, the Probate Court must determine to whom that real estate passes according to the laws of intestate succession. Once the court determines the appropriate person to take the real estate, it will issue a certificate of transfer. This document basically operates as a deed to the property, transferring the interests of the decedent to the appropriate heir or heirs. But this does not happen automatically, and the administrator of the estate must apply specifically to the court to distribute the real estate in an Application for Certificate of Transfer for Real Property. This application must be submitted to the court after submitting the inventory of the deceased person’s assets, but before the estate’s final accounting.
